VCU School of Medicine Marks National Match Day

By Erin Lucero
Office of Development, School of Medicine

 At noon on March 17, students, faculty and staff from the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine gathered for Match Day, the annual day when medical school seniors learn where they will go for residency training in their chosen specialties.

“The VCU School of Medicine Class of 2011 achieved outstanding results in the National Resident Matching Program,” said Christopher M. Woleben, M.D., associate dean of student affairs in the VCU School of Medicine. Of the 171 students who participated in the Match, 98 percent have secured positions. Of particular interest, 95 percent of VCU School of Medicine students matched prior to the “Scramble,” a figure that is once again above this year’s national average of 94 percent.

“We are proud to have 58 students matched into Primary Care specialties - 24 in categorical Internal Medicine, 21 in Family Medicine and 13 in General Pediatrics,” said Woleben, who also noted the success of 58 students who matched into particularly competitive specialties:

• 18 students into Anesthesiology

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• 15 students into Radiology
• nine students into Obstetrics and Gynecology
• six students into Orthopaedic Surgery
• three students into Urology
• three students into Dermatology
• two students into Plastic Surgery
• two students into Radiation Oncology
• one student into Neurosurgery

He also pointed to some interesting trends. “This year 17 students matched into Emergency Medicine, which is certainly growing into one of the more competitive residency programs within the past few years,” he said. 

“These are all highly competitive residency programs, so the record of the Class of 2011 is remarkable,” said Jerome F. Strauss III, M.D., Ph.D., dean of the VCU School of Medicine.

“Moreover, many of the placements are at prestigious academic medical centers across the country.  This includes the 37 students who will be staying on the MCV Campus at the VCU Health System for post-graduate training, distributed among 15 different specialty programs.”

Additional students will train at programs outside of Richmond but affiliated with VCU: Inova Fairfax Hospital’s family medicine and surgery programs and at Chesterfield Family Medicine.

Other medical centers where VCU students will continue their training include Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Cornell, Johns Hopkins University, Massachusetts General Hospital, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University, the University of California San Francisco and Yale New Haven.

In 2005, the School of Medicine and Inova Fairfax Hospital partnered to create VCU’s first regional branch medical campus in Northern Virginia. The Class of 2011 includes 27 students who completed their third and fourth years of medical school on the Inova Campus, bringing the branch campus’ total graduates to 123.  

Craig Cheifetz, M.D., the assistant dean for medical education and student affairs on the Inova Campus, said that the Inova students participating in the Match met the program’s three goals of sending students into the primary care fields, matching students to top programs around the country and matching students to Inova and MCV Campus training programs.  

A process known as the Scramble allows students who had not matched to a residency program by March 15 to contact unfilled programs and try to secure a residency position. 

“Of our unmatched students, 70 percent received a program offer within the first hour of the Scramble,” said Woleben. “This was despite the shutdown of the ERAS (Electronic Residency Application Service) and NRMP (National Residency Match Program) computer systems due to the high volume of student and program activity.

“We want to express our gratitude to our department chairs, program directors, faculty and student affairs staff for helping our students succeed in the Match process. They are exceptional mentors, role models and advocates. We are proud of the results of the 2011 Match, which reflects on the quality of our students and the superb education that they receive from our School of Medicine.”

The lead up to Match Day begins in December and January when students visit different hospitals all over the country to decide where they would like to perform their residencies. By the end of February, the students have ranked their top choices, and the hospitals have ranked their top candidates.

The data is sent to the National Resident Matching Program, which was established in 1952 to match medical students with residencies.  A computer algorithm is used to establish the matches.  The results are sent to each medical school, and on the third Thursday of March each student receives an envelope with the name of the institution where they will spend the next several years of their lives.